


Web of Flashing Lights

by LiterallyThePresident



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alcohol, Clubbing, Dancing, Fluff and Humor, Jealousy, LetKaibaRelax2k20, M/M, Pining, Ryou is a schemer and I love him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:20:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27500062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiterallyThePresident/pseuds/LiterallyThePresident
Summary: “What do you want me to do?” Joey groused loudly over the blaring music, taking a steadying gulp of the drink that had been neglected in favor of staring at Kaiba, “Go up to him? Talk to him? Talk to Seto freaking Kaiba like a grasshopper trying to chat up a black widow?”
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Comments: 1
Kudos: 47





	Web of Flashing Lights

**Author's Note:**

> Rewatching the abridged series has rekindled my interest in Yugioh lmao. Now Kaiba may seem ooc but he is also drunk off his ass. I have a friend who is a huge stick in the mud but get her drunk and she’s a party animal, so it’s not unheard of.
> 
> I was listening to this the entire time I wrote this: https://youtu.be/dC7XLQYqXYo

Joey’s self control was fraying dangerously thin as he sat alone at the bar, the pounding music sending vibrations clear to his chest as he leaned against the counter, his drink forgotten in his hand as he stared at a fixed point in the thronging crowd of partygoers. The club was too warm, the air too stuffy, and the alcohol too strong, but none of that mattered because Seto Kaiba was currently tearing up the dance floor mere yards away.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t a totally accurate depiction. He wasn’t actually doing anything groundbreaking, hell his dancing wasn’t even particularly good, nor was he the center of attention, but dammit he was the center of Joey’s  _ world _ right now. The flashing lights of the club played across Kaiba’s face, flushed with alcohol and sporting a rare grin as he cut loose for once in his life among other drunken revelers that sober Kaiba would never be caught dead with. Joey wasn’t sure whether to thank Yugi for spiking Kaiba’s drink or to curse his name, his eyes trailing over the lithe body that had haunted his dreams since high school, the long fingers and longer legs clad in his trademark black and red, reflecting the roving spotlights and strobing lights. 

God he hadn’t known Kaiba could move his hips like that, somehow sensual and carefree all at once, his arms thrown up in the air as he moved with the pulsing beat of whatever 2000s eurodance song was playing. Even his hair was mussed, falling attractively over his closed eyes and bouncing with his energetic movements. Joey was hypnotized, unable to tear his eyes away from his... friend, maybe? Frenemy? Heart’s desire?

“Alright Duke Orsino, perhaps you should stop staring like a droopy-eyed pup and actually do something.” Ryou’s voice snapped him out of his Kaiba-induced trance, and he flushed brilliantly as he used all of his willpower to force his gaze from the swaying figure on the dance floor and onto his smiling friend. He glared halfheartedly at Ryou’s angelic face, not fooled by his innocent appearance even for a moment. His head swam slightly with the sudden movement, but he ignored it in favor of huffing. 

“What do you want me to do?” he groused loudly over the blaring music, taking a steadying gulp of the drink that had been neglected in favor of staring at Kaiba, “Go up to him?  _ Talk _ to him? Talk to  _ Seto freaking Kaiba  _ like a grasshopper trying to chat up a black widow?”

“Yes.” Ryou nodded like it made perfect sense, “He’s absolutely wasted, this is the perfect time to get some actual honest conversation out of him. Hell, it may be the only time.”

“Drunk words are sober thoughts.” he snorted with a dismissive roll of his eyes, “He’d probably just insult me and shove me away. Maybe try to fire me like the last time he drank.”

“But… you don’t work for him?” Ryou blinked confusedly, and Joey grinned.

“That’s what made it so funny.” he raised his glass in a mock toast, “Either way, ain’t no chance in hell. I’m absolutely not gonna... gonna...” Fuck, he’d made the mistake of allowing his eyes to drift back to Kaiba. The CEO was laughing brightly now, seeming young and soft in a way he only ever was in Mokuba’s presence, and Joey was once again under his spell. He didn’t see Ryou’s calculating look, nor the sparkle in his chocolate eyes as he quietly got up. Joey was so busy watching Kaiba dance that he didn’t notice Ryou until the man was right next to Kaiba, laying a pale hand on his arm to get his attention and turning his fiendishly angelic smile on him, speaking words Joey couldn’t hear over the din. He felt a scowl cross his face as Kaiba stopped his entrancing dancing to focus on Ryou as best he could in his heavily inebriated state, sapphire eyes foggy and confused but still so unfairly gorgeous it made his teeth ache. 

Whatever Ryou said didn’t matter as he stepped closer to Kaiba, slipping his arms around that tapered waist, and Joey saw red. Before he knew it, he was off the barstool and striding over to them, grabbing Ryou’s shoulder and yanking him away from Kaiba’s stumbling form, ignoring how the world seemed to swim around him. Maybe he’d drunk more than he’d thought. 

“Hey, what’s the big idea?” he snarled, squeezing the deceptively frail shoulder in his grasp, “Making a move on a guy too drunk to say fuck off, the hell!?”

“Well if you weren’t going to make a move...” Ryou grinned, and Kaiba frowned at both of them, that familiar furrow appearing in his brow.

“Don’t be stupid, Wheeler.” he shouted over the music, but there was no real heat at all in his words, “Bakura wasn’t hitting on me.”

“He was all over you!” Joey yelled back, filled with an anger and bitterly undeserved possessiveness he didn’t know what to do with. This was why he rarely drank. He hated how easy it was to anger when he did, how his father’s voice echoed in his drunken mind. But he was better than his father, and he proved it by releasing Ryou, electing to cross his arms instead. Unfortunately for him, his righteous indignation fizzled out with a pathetic whimper as Kaiba  _ smiled _ at him, eyes hazy with drink but filled with a genuine emotion that Joey didn’t dare identify.

“Wheeler.” his eyes crinkled, “You trying to protect me?”

“I... might be.” he flushed, his mind working for too slowly to come up with an excuse in the face of those deep blue eyes, so distracted he didn’t see Ryou take his chance and slip away into the crowd, “Who knows what could happen to a big important guy like you when you’re drunk as a skunk? Looks like you need old Joey to keep an eye on you lest some creep try something.”

“As annoying as the implication that I need your protection is, I am way too drunk to be offended by it.” Kaiba declared, pulling himself together just enough to look down his nose at him in that old haughty manner, “I blame you for my current state, and if I remember any of this tomorrow I am going to kill you with a rock.”

“Oh come on, it was Yugi!” he exclaimed, secretly relieved to see a glimpse of the grumpy asshole he knew and... you know what he wasn’t gonna finish that sentence. 

“Then I’m going to kill him and make his ridiculous hair into a scarf for Mokuba to wear.” Kaiba said without a hint of jest in his voice, “You can have his skin when I’m done flaying him alive.”

“Uh… thanks.” Joey laughed nervously, and Kaiba fell silent, taking a long moment to just stare at him. Joey fought the urge to shift in place, feeling laid out and bare under that hazy gaze but unable to find the words to break the strange bubble they found themselves in, alone in a crowd of dancers. He settled for staring back, drinking his fill of those elegant features for as long as he could. 

“I want to dance some more.” Kaiba ended up breaking the brief spell, seemingly bored with silence, and Joey let out a yelp as the man grabbed his hands and swung him around, knocking him into a few nearby dancers without a hint of remorse. Joey stumbled to keep his footing, instinctively grasping Kaiba’s hands tight to remain upright. Kaiba laughed snidely, amused by his clumsiness as he started moving again, keeping hold of Joey’s hands as the beat swept him away again. This time Joey got a front row seat to his dancing, the way his eyes slid shut to savor the moment, the sweat slicking their palms and the pink tinging his face, the ruffled mess of brown hair that compelled Joey to reach up and fix it. Kaiba kept hold of him as he swayed his hips and swung his shoulders, laughing slightly at nothing the way drunk people did, and Joey knew for certain that was a goner for this man.

He also knew for certain that Kaiba was going to kill him with a rock tomorrow. Probably in front of Serenity. Sun Tzu’s first law of war; ‘do ‘em dirty in front of they sister.’ When he sobered up, all of them were in so much trouble it wasn’t even funny. 

Watching Kaiba relax for once in his life, he couldn’t help but think it was totally worth it.


End file.
